


Brawl

by Mitarashii



Category: Sally Face (Video Games)
Genre: Also a homophobic slur cuz it's travis, Angst, But it feels good at the end, Gen, Larry and Travis fight for fun but???, Lots of teen boys cussing, Sal/Larry is only hinted
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-04
Updated: 2019-10-04
Packaged: 2020-11-23 09:23:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20889815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mitarashii/pseuds/Mitarashii
Summary: Larry and Travis have established a secret fight club by skipping class and wailing on one another. Larry is almost sure he had a reason to fight, but it just became something else entirely. But this particular fight falls short of the usual, as Larry notices bruises not caused by him.





	Brawl

Every other week or so with this same routine, they’d been building up quite a tolerance for even the hardest of hits thrown. He was surprised that no one had questioned them about the bruises on their arms and faces while school went on but it just meant more fun for them. Was this fun? Or was this just some fucked up way of blowing off steam? Larry couldn’t place a thought on what _this_ even was but he was sure it was doing some good for them... maybe? 

He’d come back to that thought.

Today’s brawl was like any other, give each other dirty looks in the hallway, piss each other off with some kind of rude comment or insult before lunch was over, ditch fourth period and meet up behind the bleachers, fight. Fight. _Fight._

Larry had to admit, maybe it was kinda weird he’d gotten used to seeing the bruises he had caused on Travis’s body, like the large one that looked like a frying pan placed on Travis’s thigh, or the multiple ones that developed all over his arms. They were easy to recognize but... _those?_ Foreign, not from him but he _noticed_ them. It was there but... how? Was Travis getting his ass handed to him via another angry high schooler or?? 

Larry’s thoughts were interrupted as he fell back a few feet from the incoming punch to the cheek. He was thrown back so hard, that felt different than the last.

“The fuck are you stopping for?? Come on, faggot!” These outdated insults, ugh. If Larry hadn’t met Sal maybe he’d be a little less concerned. He turned back to the blond, walking towards him with his eyes glued to the now covered hip that had revealed a nasty secret just moments ago. What was that? Who did it. “Hey! My eyes are up here!” Was that meant to sound like a joke or... 

Larry caught Travis’s fist, even he was surprised at how fuckin metal that was. 

An awkward moment of blinking at each other, Travis was first to squirm, using his other arm to swing at Larry’s other exposed cheek. Too bad, Larry was getting good at stopping the rain of fists coming his way. Suck it, Travis. 

“Where’d those come from?” His question was low, voice not so much full of concern as he thought it’d be. Maybe he sounded a bit pissed about it cause Travis almost instantly swung his legs up for a cheap shot to the ol’ family jewels. Larry let him go, quickly stepping back. 

“Shut up! It’s none of your business! You probably caused them, dipshit!” _True._ Okay, so maybe just noticing the different bruises was a bit creepy but hey! Can’t blame a guy for being observant. Plus, Travis was _shaking_ now. Oooh, definitely struck a cord there.

Asking again might result in more punching, but they were so clumsy, like Travis wasn’t thinking. It was mindless, blindly swinging just to get a hit in, yet he continued.

“Who did that to you?” 

“Why are you asking?? Fight me!” Larry found this kind of sad, pathetic even how Travis dissolved into an uncoordinated mass of arms and legs as he kept charging forward wildly. Larry even _allowed_ him to get a hit in. Pity more than actual sympathy at this point. “Stop.. moving so mu— AH!” Travis tripped over his own two feet, landing onto the grass below. Okay so maybe it’d have been best to actually stop this before it got anymore out of hand. The glimpse of more odd bruises lining the sides and just above Travis’s hip bone was... unsettling. It looked as if the guy might've been kicked there or something. Larry decided against pulling Travis’s shirt down.

“Ya done being a lil shit yet?” Larry kneeled next to the shaking body, only to be met with another poorly swung arm that almost got him but again, poorly thought out. He grabbed Travis’s arms, pinning him down. His grip was pretty strong, his determination to figure this shit out was stronger. Sal’s fault honestly, curiosity was never his strong suit till that blue haired beauty came into his life. 

“Let me go!” The thrashing was almost too much, causing Larry to get kicked in the side once... maybe twice actually. Okay three times, this hurt quite a lot. He struggled to place his knees on top of Travis’s wiggling legs, which was somehow successful. He was finding out a lot about his own body through these fights. Like his nosebleeds poured like waterfalls, or that he had more than a few moles spread throughout his body in varying degrees of sizes and also the fact that he was not at all ticklish on the legs. Hard to describe how he found _that_ out but, another story for another time.

Looking down at the blond demon was different than before. Larry never had a chance to give Travis much of a long look before, just angry glares and passing stares but not like this. It was weird, he didn’t know how to describe it. His whole reason for doing this was for Sal’s sake, or at least it used to be. Now it was just to get his anger out, to vent through physical pain that just felt so satisfying when in the midst of it all. What was Travis’s reason...? 

“I swear on God's green earth I’ll kill you if you don’t get the fuck off of me.” The threat sounded serious, almost like Larry would definitely have to watch his back twice as much. He frowned, not taking kindly to such a thing like that but they’d been doing this for so long was it really meaningful at this point? “What??” Larry didn’t know what to say, his grip only tightened. “Wh... what are you gonna do..??” A break in tone, Travis seemed to calm down, but the shaking was so intense, his eyes were widening by the second as he came to realize... something? “Get off of me, pervert... fuck this is uncomfortable! What the fuck are you gonna do??”

“You callin' me a pervert cuz I'm gay? Pssh, low blow, dude. I'm not gonna do nothin', I just need you to calm the fuck down already. You’re throwing a tantrum over a fuckin question.” Larry sounded stern, as though he was gonna kick someone’s ass if they didn’t listen. Well, Travis would get his ass kicked again no doubt about that. 

“Calm down??” A harsh, sarcastic laugh sounded, “Calm down?? You want me to just... calm down? Oh wow that’s fuckin rich! You’re sitting on top of me, pinning me down like you wanna do something to me.” Where did that come from. “How can I calm down??” 

“That’s definitely not what I’m tryin to do, idiot I’m just asking where—“ 

“None of your fucking business! Get off of me!” The thrashing again, which caught Larry off guard from their rather riveting conversation. Shit, his grip loosened. Travis managed to break free, the next blow to Larry’s side was bullseye on a fresh bruise that hurt like a bitch. Exhaustion definitely decided to kick in early today, for fucks sake...  
Being shoved further, Larry’s shoulder dug into the grass and dirt, he held his hands up to block any incoming hits but now Travis was on top, reaching for Larry’s neck.

“I’ll fucking kill you!” The struggle to keep his neck free of those spidery fingers was a tough one. It was a little scary how intense Travis looked, frightening that this fight suddenly became a life or death kinda thing, maybe it wasn’t but, _heat of the moment_. Larry felt his vision blur, his head whipping from side to side as Travis kept barreling him in the face. In between each punch, the blond kept yelling. It was a bit hard to hear it all with his jaw bones being assaulted.

“You don’t know shit! You don’t need to know! What’s it to you anyways, huh?? I tell you my dads been beating me for years and it’s all okay?? You don’t know shit, Larry! Fuck you and everyone in this school! Fuck you!” There was a pause, giving Larry a good moment to look up at the shaking teen. Those were tears, right? 

“What..?” Larry squinted, it hurt to open his eyes but he could see the other raising his fist but it just hung there. To think Larry was slightly prepared for one more slugger. “Travis..” he managed to blubber out before the other was hiding his face behind bloodied fists. He swore he could feel his own body vibrate along with Travis. Larry attempted to sit up from his elbows, just soaking in what was just confessed to him. It was.. really unsettling, more than he had bargained for.

He liked the pain a lot, and it did… _something_ to him, but... shit now he felt like a total ass for wanting to do this all the time. It felt like he was serving some sort of justice to the school bully, only to find out the town pastor was actually garbage. The adrenaline rush might be ruined now. Larry shifted, causing Travis to remove himself quickly from Larry’s lap as he angrily rubbed his eyes and sniffed as much as his plugged up nose could. He too was bleeding like crazy from both nostrils so the sniffles were kind of like loud snorts. It’d be funny if this wasn’t all so horribly depressing. 

“Dude have you...told anyone?” 

“Are you fuckin serious?!” That loud retort was not expected. This was waaay out of Larry’s comfort zone anyways he was bound to fuck up his responses. Woops. 

“I mean... if your dad's doing that kinda shit you should...” 

“And be put in foster care? And have everything fucked up cause I decided to tell someone?? To be known as the son of an abusive pastor?? Are you fucking _insane??_“ Jesus Christ. Where was Sal, he’d be so much better at this and now Larry felt. Anxiety. The sobs from Travis became louder, his face was totally covered but his whimpers were just... damn this sucked.  
“Sorry I...I don’t know what to say.” 

“Oh that’s rich. You begged to know and there it is! Happy now? Laugh it up why don’t ya! Or tell your queer fuckin friends about it! The guy that bullies them gets beat up every day!” 

“I wouldn’t tell anyone... I mean... shit this is fucked.” They stared at one another for what felt like forever, Larry was the first to look away. Was it bad to be so concerned? Was it bad to want to run off and never look back? He couldn’t handle this level of... bad. It was enough his dad disappeared for some dumb reason, the Addison apartments were haunted, his mom was deathly sick again... shit. Sal, where was Sal?? “I’m sorry.” 

“You... you’re.. sorry.” The tone had died down a bit, Travis sounded a bit defeated but almost amused. Like some kind of horrible joke he shouldn’t have laughed at but secretly enjoyed hearing. Morbid. “He’s never gonna say that to me and mean it.” 

“He’s horrible for doing that to you... I mean... like it’s ...not your fault though I mean you’re just... you’re a victim and... it’s so unfair and... damn uh..” he was trying at least.

Larry’s blubbered attempts at comfort were something that seemed to have no effect on Travis. The way he just sneered at Larry’s words was definitely a blow to the ego as Larry just didn’t have his sentences settled. The _feeling_ of what to say was there, but trying to translate it verbally was a whole different story. Sal was so much better at this and Sal had such a shitty life... of course no tragedy was comparable but him and Travis could at least relate in witnessing or being in some really traumatizing situations, shit that Larry couldn’t even comprehend. Well, witnessing someone getting _killed_ is something but, not the point. How did comfort even work? Whenever he was pissed off he’d just call Sal over and the blue haired angel worked his magic as if he was born to cater to people’s needs. 

Magic that Larry didn’t possess. 

So how the fuck was this supposed to go anyways? If Larry was being thrown into a traumatizing event where he couldn’t say anything about it, what would he even want to hear?? ‘Oh I'm so sorry that happened to you!’ ‘Oh god that’s so terrible you poor thing!’ Such contrived and meaningless attempts at sympathy... or maybe that’s not what Travis needed. 

Why was he asking himself these questions?! Why did he care?!

“Listen, you don’t deserve what’s happening to you but.. if you need to uh..” his words trailed off, fuck what could he even offer?? What Would Sal Do? His new mantra. “If you need a place to stay to get away for awhile, my... my moms pretty cool. She kind of adopted Sal like he was her own the moment she met him so she’d do the same to you... of course ya kinda have to tone down the whole ‘faggot’ talk.” Larry’s eyes weren’t at all meeting Travis’s. It was scary to even look up or watch the other _breathe._ He could be glaring at him or getting ready to throw another punch. Larry was in no mood for that, the high was gone. 

There were no words for what felt like decades, Larry was so ready to die on the spot but his heart tossed itself against his rib cage when Travis spoke up.

“Why.” 

It was a simple word, the context was so serious and it pierced right through Larry. ‘Why’??? Why would he just ask such a thing? _Because I’m being nice??? Asshole???_ or.. was that really it? Was he doing this out of obligation? No...  
“Honestly... if I never met Sal I wouldn’t think of inviting you anywhere.” Larry huffed, finally gaining the courage to look up into the others eyes. He was intimidated, such hurt oozing from Travis’s red, puffy eyes. His face all contorted from the bruising and blood seeping down his nose. “I don’t like you or anything but... Sal kind of gave me a different way to look at people. Ya know, he's the one that kept saying shit might be going on at home to make you so angry. I didn’t wanna believe that.” 

For a split second, Travis’s face softened, some surprise from learning that the kid he bullied actually gave a shit. It was back to a horrible scowl just moments later when Travis balled his fists again. 

“Whoa whoa wait dude! I’m just sayin... if anything I’m... I mean I can admit I’d be really uncaring towards this if I didn’t have someone like Sal constantly being the voice of reason. But also I just... that shit sucks... just being blunt, that’s fuckin _terrible._ I am... really. Sorry.”  
He couldn’t possibly get any more sincere than that, and damn, he did his best to console the other and maybe it wasn't an obligation. Larry genuinely felt it, as that had to have been tough. He couldn’t humor himself or Travis trying to act like some kind of saint... finding a solution to such a complicated problem may have to come at another time... as much as that hurt to think. 

Sure calling the cops would be one thing but the aftermath as Travis stated just sounded like hell for the poor kid, which was better to even deal with? Plus, the police couldn't even be trusted! A rock and a hard place, a catch-22, a fuckin conundrum of bullshit that life mindlessly flung at this teen. It’s unfair, unsettling and overall just bad news. Larry was an outsider, he always seemed to witness or hear of terrible shit yet be able to do nothing. Poor Mrs. Sanderson... 

“I don’t need your pity.” The reply stung, it hurt to hear for some reason. Here Larry was, pouring his concern out into a nice lil glass for Travis only to have that shit smashed by a hammer of ‘yeah yeah quit acting like you give a care.’ Sure that’s a pretty detailed metaphor but.. it was pretty shitty. Larry lowered his head, he had nothing else to say. He was sure Travis had every right to shrug off any attempts as he’d probably heard it before to whoever else he may have told. Chances are Larry was the first and God did that _sting._

“I... i guess that... sounds better than being home.”  
A breakthrough? Maybe? This had never happened before! Larry gulped, his eyes at attention though Travis was now the one looking away. 

“Yeah man I mean... Sal and I—“ 

“Don’t you _dare_ tell Sal about this!” 

“...I wasn’t—“ 

“I mean it! Don’t tell him or anyone, understand?? This isn’t something you can gossip about and if you do I swear I’ll...!” 

“Hey hey! I promise on my dead body I won’t say shit!! Really! Not even Sal..!” Larry held his hands up in defense. He meant it for sure though he hated keeping things from his best friend... ugh Sal would be so much better with this too, such a bummer. It took a while but Travis reverted back to a defeated calmness, eyes back on the grass below him as he began to relax, as much as his body would allow. 

“... okay..” 

Having missed the last two classes of school, Larry and Travis had sat in almost deafening silence for hours. They had tended to their own wounds as best as they could, sneaking to the bathrooms in between hallways, making sure to avoid the hall monitors. It was always back to the back of the bleachers when they were all done. Larry felt himself drifting in his mind, surprised that Travis had stayed next to him till school was out.  
To pass time, Larry pulled out his sketchbook, drawing random doodles here and there. He could’ve sworn Travis had been leaning over to watch and... for once he didn’t mind that. It was... awkward and weird but comfortable. It was even weirder that Travis offered some of his sunflower seeds. Was that a truce or...? Either way, they remained that way. 

Once school was over, Larry sat on the wall in front of the school, seeing Sal, Ash and Todd emerge from the doors of the school. 

“Larry! Dude!” Sal called out, the first to hurry up to the wall right at Larry’s feet. The excitement and worry in Sal’s eyes brought an immense amount of pride to Larry. God he loved this guy. 

“Hey.” Larry hopped off the wall, landing on his feet and smirked. The bruises on his face were hard to miss. There it was, Sal’s frown. Even with the prosthetic on, Larry could just tell. 

“You really need to stop fighting and skipping class. I mean ditching whatever, but your face is all fucked up.” 

“Thank you, thank you. I did it myself.” Larry bowed, only to be met with a light tap of Sal’s fist to the back of his head. It didn’t feel like much but Larry yelped in a fake cry, holding his scalp. “Oh the most powerful man in the universe has struck me!!”  
“I’ll really kick your ass if you keep this up.” Sal’s tone was playful yet stern, he’d definitely do it. Todd was the first to stop next to the two, blinking rather quickly as he took in Larry’s numerous bruises. 

“I take it you didn’t go see the nurse for those, correct?” 

“Nah, no reason to! I’m good!” 

“Sure,” Ash added as she crossed her arms over her chest. “You look like you’re struggling to see out of that eye there... and your cheeks’ all puffed up like a blowfish. Veeery attractive.” 

“Hey! I only intend to attract the most metal of them all, so until that one comes around, this is fine!” Larry glanced down at Sal, only to be met with an elbow to the side. 

“In your dreams, Casanova. Let’s get you home so I can clean you up.” Sal began walking forward, he knew there was a story behind all this but he’d wait till Larry came out with it himself. Maybe Larry liked to fight because it was an excuse for Sal to get close and... was that reaching a little too far?? 

“Thanks, I’ll stop at some point just uh... blowing off some steam is all.”

**Author's Note:**

> So, I apologize for any misspellings or grammatical errors. I haven't written a fic in what feels like eons, but... I made an A03 specifically to post this and just never did. So, I hope y'all like it! This was made last year in March and I just.. forgot to edit and all that. Hope people enjoy!! I'd like to write fics again ...


End file.
